Dayshift 34: Men's Showers

[0bnoxious]

Albel had wasted an entire night, but he couldn't quite figure out how he had actually wasted it. He had left his room early, didn't stand around doing nothing and no pathetic worm had dragged him down. Finding Fayt's room and smack the foolish maggot against the nearest wall shouldn't have taken a full night, but yet he found himself back in his

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[stray_shinigami]

[for Daemon]

Renji was less than thrilled that it was shower time again. While he liked the idea of being clean, the rest, he just didn't want to deal with any more. He picked a shower head as far away from everyone else as possible, and tried to get himself cleaned off as quickly as he could, scrubbing at his bruises and scrapes - most of them from his fight the previous night with Lucivar - far harder than was necessary.

[bastard_sadi]

Daemon had seen the notes on the bulletin board this morning, and though he'd spotted Renji a few times at a distance during the day, the redhead had always been busy with someone.

Coming into the showers, he found the Shinigami alone still - which was unsurprising; he and Renji seemed to have a developing pattern of always finding each other here. Which was amusing, at least, in how flustered it occasionally made the other male.

Stripping quickly, he strode across the room, to take up the showerhead next to the death god. His narrowed gaze quickly took in the bruises scattered across his skin and a frown slipped across his lips. Especially when he spotted a particular shaped one on the redhead's backside.

"Renji," he greeted mildly, no evidence in his tone of his mood or what he thought of the sight the other male made.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji looked over at Daemon, still scrubbing away at one of his arms. As much as he liked the guy, he was one of the last people he really wanted to talk to, at the moment. Because really, he didn't want to talk to much of anyone.

"Hey, Daemon," he said.

[bastard_sadi]

"Are you alright?" Daemon inquired, arching an eyebrow as he cast a pointed glance at Renji's many bruises. "You went wrestling with night creatures again, didn't you?"

Although that didn't explain the hand-shaped one in that particular spot. However, the fact that yesterday had been a therapy day might.

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shrugged, looking away to inspect the tiles on the wall. "Same's usual," he said, tone final. "Up to anything interestin? I heard you were lookin' for spiders." He managed a reasonable attempt at a smile and a laugh. "Kinda surprised you didn't want to take me along as bait."

[bastard_sadi]

"Didn't think about that," Daemon replied, quirking his lips into a faint smirk at the redhead's words. "I found a boy who knew where to find a nest of them. We'll see if the hunt did me any good tonight, I suppose. What about you?"

He wasn't dropping the subject just yet, just looking for another way around to it.

[stray_shinigami]

"See if it did any good tonight?" Renji repeated. "What are you gonna be doin?" He shrugged again, and started scrubbing at his other arm. "Didn't really get anythin accomplished. Hung out with your brother some. We got to the wall, but that was it."

[bastard_sadi]

"Seeing if they left me... certain abilities," Daemon answered, wondering how to explain this. He lowered his voice, for Renji's ears alone. "I'm known as a Black Widow in the realm I come from. I can spin a tangled web... depending on its purpose, it can ensnare a person or their mind. It's illusion and manipulation. But it can also allow me to see things unknown, or things that have not happened yet. I needed the spider silk for that purpose. I'm not sure if it will work here or not, but I intend to find out tonight."

[stray_shinigami]

The only reason Renji actually knew that black widows were spiders was that he'd read more western literature than was probably healthy. He eyed Daemon a bit strangely, wondering if the other man was concealing a couple sets of extra limbs or something.

"Right," he finally said. "Hopefully it works. I guess it'd be really... useful?" He just had no idea what it might do; it was perfectly foreign to his own experience with things, though he guessed if Daemon could make like Aizen and start screwing the brains of the staff, he'd be on to something good.

"Actually, got some interesting news of my own. Matsumoto picked up a shield in the basement last night that goes with the useless sword I got a couple nights ago. Far as we've been able to find, it opens one of the doors in the basement, so we're gonna try it tonight." He grinned, mostly because it felt great to be doing something for once. "I was kinda hopin to borrow you for it, but sounds like you've got your hands full."

[bastard_sadi]

"Tonight I'm full. Not to mention River's commanded me to wait for her in my room anyway, she has something important to tell me," Daemon replied with a brief shake of his head, looking both bemused and confused.

"I could come along tomorrow night, though, if you still need someone? I'm sure Lucivar would be interested as well, if there's any fighting to be had."

[stray_shinigami]

"Huh, okay," Renji said. "Well, tell her I said hi. Haven't seen her around much lately." He frowned. There were a lot of people he'd been missing lately. And apparently some of them would be missing permanently. "Good luck with your stuff. And yeah, I'll probably leave a not for your brother, then."

[bastard_sadi]

Daemon nodded. "Good luck with it, and let me know in the morning what happened. I'll try and find you at some point."

Daemon fell silent for a moment, ducking his head back under the hot spray and washing his hair to take a moment to think. When he pulled back out, he shook his head, sending droplets flying for a moment.

"So. Are you going to tell me what happened yesterday?" he asked after a long moment of silence. There was a hint of determination in his even tone.

[stray_shinigami]

"Yeah, sure. Hopefully it'll be worth something, but everything I've run across here like it's been worthless so far. Like that bullshit with the wall. It's like not a goddamn thing we do matters." He shook his head, and began to work at washing his hair.

At Daemon's next question, his hands stilled for a moment. "No," he said. "Because there's nothing to tell."

[bastard_sadi]

"What bullshit with the wall?" Daemon asked, looking curious. "I didn't get a chance to get there last night. Was the information given over the radio false?"

At Renji's denial, golden eyes narrowed faintly. "No? I can tell that a good many of those bruises came from a fight - Lucivar last night, I take it? But I know my brother, and there's a few in conspicuous places that I know were not from him."

[stray_shinigami]

Renji shrugged. "Oh, far as I could tell, we could get over it. But I also think it's bullshit. It's not somethin' any of us figured out. I'm sick of feelin like we're being given things. I don't trust it." He shook his head.

His eyes narrowed. "Fucking drop it," he hissed. Sadly, part of him hoped that Daemon wouldn't drop it. He liked the idea of getting in another fight just fine.

[bastard_sadi]

"And you probably shouldn't," Daemon agreed with a slight nod, looking thoughtful. "Perhaps they're just widening the maze. I didn't hear of an over-abundance of people not being here this morning, so I'm guessing whoever made it over still woke up here." He grimaced. Well, that made things a whole lot more difficult, didn't it?

Renji's anger certainly didn't stifle his suspicions. "You saw your doctor again yesterday, didn't you?" It wasn't exactly a question, but Daemon's expression was impassive and unreadable.